Chiruromys

Chiruromys is a genus of Altweltmäusen, which is native to New Guinea, the nearby Louisiade Archipelago, the D' Entrecasteaux Islands, Goodenough and Fergusson and Normanby on.

General

To this genus include small rat-like animals with long tails, which are adapted to an arboreal lifestyle. The head-body length is 8.4 to 17.5 centimeters, the tail length from 12.8 to 24.5 cm and weight 23-122 grams ( Nowak, 1999). The coat is reddish, greyish or brownish, and the belly is white. They live in forests and spend most of their lives in the canopy of the trees. Their diet consists mainly of young leaves. The females have six teats. The litter consists of one to three boys that come in a tree hollow to the world.

According to IUCN, none of the species is endangered.

System

Chiruromys has long been regarded as a subgenus of the prehensile tail rats ( Pogonomys ). Through analysis of the morphology of the chromosomes and the Australian scientist Elizabeth Dennis and Jim Menzies in 1979 found that the two taxa are not closely related to each other and classified as a separate genus Chiruromys. Musser & Carleton (2005) classified the genus in the Pogonomys group, a predominantly indigenous to New Guinea radiation of Altweltmäuse.

The following types are known:

• Large tree rat ( Chiruromys forbesi )
• Small tree rat ( Chiruromys vates )
• Breitkopf tree rat ( Chiruromys lamia )

A fourth, previously undescribed species is endemic to the archipelago Louisiade.